Abengoa wins $48M settlement over ethanol zoning brouhaha

In Missouri, Abengoa Bioenergy won a $48.4 million settlement against Chicago Title Insurance Co. whose 2006 error caused it to bypass building a plant outside Wichita, Kansas, and build one in Illinois instead.

The Company alleged in the suit filed in 2008 that Chicago Title Insurance Co. needed to notify property owners near the proposed site of the Colwich, Kansas plant in order to acquire the necessary zoning to build the plant.

Instead, the title company left seven property owners off the list who then sued Agengoa once the zoning was granted. Abengoa then decided to build the plant in Granite City, Il. However, the Kansas plant could have opened 15 months earlier, and would have been less expensive to build and more profitable.